Cognitive Labs

Duke researchers are asserting that eating curry-prepared foods two or more times per week may reduce the chance of Alzheimer's by targeting amyloid plaque formations.

In particular, the team of scientists believes that curcumin, which helps to make up the spice tumeric, works to prevent the spread of amyloid protein plaques in the brain, linked to the onset of Alzheimer's in a number of previous studies.



Speaking at the annual meeting of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in the UK, lead researcher Professor Murali Doraiswamy said: "There is very solid evidence that curcumin binds to plaques, and basic research on animals engineered to produce human amyloid plaques has shown benefits."

Greg Cole at UCLA has found similar benefits in other research. 1 | pdf

The most common form of dementia, Alzheimer's disease was first recognised by the German neuropathologist Alois Alzheimer in 1905.

Labels: amyloid, cole, curcumin, doraiswamy, Duke, tumeric, ucla

Syria, a crossroads of empire for 3,000 years, is once again in the news.


Roman emperor Phillip "Arabus" on Syrian 100 pound note

Links:

Assyrians
Babylonians
Achaemenids
Seleucids
Roman Syria

Pan of ruins: Palmyra
Byzantine Syria and the Muslim Conquest
Medieval Syria
Ottoman Syria
French Mandate of Syria
Politics of Independent Syria

That's a start...

Labels: achaemenids, cole, palmyra, phillip, romans, syria, u.s., umayyads

Highway of the Holy: A rock and roll legend tests your brain.

Labels: 66, cole, king, mayer, mode, route, stones, teepee, troop

Look on these works, ye mighty, and despair...

So blogs Michigan prof. Juan Cole, ZDNet applies this to the mobile market in its open source blog. It's probably time to download and start playing around with Android. Skate to where the puck is going, not where it was before, so they say.

The picture in the link is Ramses II, toppled over in Thebes, the inspiration for Shelley's poem. To get there, take the slow moving, listing ferry crowded with fellaheen from Luxor across the Nile to Thebes. Once there, take a walk, or get a donkey if you're lazy

Labels: android, cole, luxor, MOBILE, nokia, ozymandias, puck, thebes

Researchers such as Greg Cole (UCLA/VA) previously have studied the antioxidant properties of curry - attributing it to curcumin. But new research reveals the exact compound...

bisdemethoxycurcumin, an ingredient in curcumin that may help the immune system clear the amyloid beta that forms the plaques found in Alzheimer's disease. Curcumin is a natural substance found in tumeric root, frequently used in Indian curries. Using blood samples of Alzheimer's patients, researchers found that bisdemethoxycurcumin boosted immune cells called macrophages to clear amyloid beta.

Labels: alzheimers, bisdemethoxycurcumin, cole, curcumin, curry, ucla